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Archive for February, 2011

vortex n, a mass of fluid (as a liquid) with a whirling or circular motion that tends to form a cavity in the center, and to draw toward this cavity bodies subject to its action.

The project’s ambition lies in its dramatic spatial and climatic modulation and the saturation of its interior with visual and physical material of the surrounding site. The surrounding geometric and topographic features, and the air currents these features produce, are drawn into the interior to condition its atmosphere. The man-made and the natural are characterized as of the same fluid medium, and the house is a vortex into which this material is drawn. This ambition informs each part of the house’s organization: its five-sided sculpted form, environmental control system, folded roofscape, exterior wrapper and involuted covered patios.

The Warroad Land Port of Entry is a 40,108 square foot facility that supports the mission-driven demands of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the federal agency responsible for securing the nation’s borders and promoting legal trade and travel. Conceived as a specific response to the vast open landscape along the Minnesota-Canadian border, its form reiterates the dominant horizon of the landscape while making reference to the East-West border. Inflected building forms facilitate intuitive use by visitors, the officers’ ability to survey the entire site, and vehicle access to secondary and commercial inspection areas.

One recent interior design project that highlights many of the benefits A|W has derived from using Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the Dow Chemical Company’s new Brazilian corporate headquarters—a 10-story, 12,000-square-meter building in São Paulo that will accommodate around 800 employees and include office space, an auditorium, and a restaurant, as well as laboratories and other technical facilities.

This house takes part of a program of the congregation Rotterdam who wanted to revitalize disadvantaged neighbourhoods by selling metier houses to private persons.

These homes have in common that they are neglected the last few years and have to be refreshed. The buildings usually consist of several small apartments, one per layer. The purpose of the municipality by selling the buildings is to attract inhabitants with more carrying-capacity. Condition of sale is that the property will be restored within a specified period and will transformed into one house. This causes less, but larger houses. This is the opposite trend to what happens in many inner cities where larger houses are divided into several small apartments.

Ten Museum Park, Miami, Florida by OPPENHEIM Architecture+Design is an exploration of the hedonistic possibilities of architecture in a futuristic tropical playground of urban sophistication. A crisp, well proportioned exoskeleton engages a pure crystalline volume soaring 50 stories above the bay—a dynamic beacon for the cruise ships as they return from their voyages around the globe.

ecosistema urbano believes that the revitalization of urban life is not obtained merely by architecture alone, but by focusing on solutions which encompass all aspects of the city system. Regenerating the networks of social, environmental, and physical elements plants the seed for flourishing, liveable urban communities. The ecological reconfiguration of Philadelphia uses the city’s strong history of citizen participation to develop a sustainable and economically-viable landscape.

City Parks Association of Philadelphia City Parks Association stimulates visionary thinking about natural resources and open space in the urban community. From its founding in 1888, City Parks Association has encouraged the establishment and maintenance of public parks and open spaces in the city of Philadelphia.
City Parks’ programs foster ongoing dialogue and collaborative action among people committed to the stewardship of our city’s natural resources.www.cityparksphila.org

The form, siting, and distribution of spaces for the Ilona urban dwelling complex in Miami Beach, Florida designed by OPPENHEIM Architecture+Design are derived from a logical analysis of its physical and intangible context. A complex array of interlocking, volumes maximizes light, air, and stringent FAR restrictions. Centrally located on the nondescript site, the building offers views of the passing cruise ships and the surrounding Art Deco Style. The material palette is simple and sincere: white stucco, an aluminum glazing system, perforated aluminum panels, and shell stone details connect the building to the local fabric’s traditions and techniques. Individual 2-story units are expressed as dynamically jutting volumes from the elongated hexagonal plan.

Transformation of a villa into first energy neutral monument of the Netherlands

The villa in Driebergen is a monument from the beginning of the last century. The owners bought this villa from the municipality because they had a very progressive idea of transforming this monument into a zero-energy house. Together with OPAI (Rau Amsterdam) there was a plan to realize the first energy-neutral monument of The Netherlands: a house that provides its own energy by high quality systems. Within the energy concept the house is isolated with natural materials such as reed mats and flax. The old wooden window frames are preserved and provided of insulating secondary glazing. Zecc architects integrated the energy concept in the existing monument and adjusted the villa to the wishes of its future residents. A new extension on the back strengthens the relationship with the garden and opens the house to the green surrounding.

Existing at the intersection of civic, commercial, and residential activity, the 65,000 square foot Montclair condominium complex project by OPPENHEIM Architecture+Design located in Miami Beach was the result of a process of contextual sampling subject to the restrictions of an exaggerated historic preservation agenda and municipal zoning constraints. Confronted with 2 lots that straddle a nondescript, but sacred Post-war apartment building, the massing of the complex is derived from the collusion of abstract reference and the mundane. Financial objectives– the maximization of saleable area and idealized unit/parking correlations are kept in check with sensitivity towards the maintenance of the surrounding urban fabric.

A house and garden to eat, that you are able to touch, smell, taste, seed, weed, and harvest! EATHOUSE is a house in a garden that attracts visitors with delicious vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. We want to seduce people and make them taste the edible garden and the edible house. EATHOUSE has a temporary character; it lasts a summer season. This is why all the materials used in EATHOUSE can be re-used for a new season of EATHOUSE at a different spot.